Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Shortcuts have always led to more work for me, not less. The past two weeks have emphasized that to me. They have also taught my a new definition to “shortcut.” Sorry, there is no magic here. Wiktionary.org: A path between two points that is faster than the commonly used paths; A method […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Producing a lot of documentation doesn’t ensure project success. Sometimes, when emphasized incorrectly, a lot of documentation can ensure project failure. Keep in mind the purposes of documentation. This week during one of those little lulls that occur in even the busiest of endeavors, an engineer and I were chatting. For some […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Management actions and lingo are nice. They are not, however, as effective as simple friendship. In a recent job, we had a traditional organization arrangement where the engineers built systems and the operators used the systems. Managers divided this arrangement into smaller parts or “branches” of six to ten people by the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips One group of leaders can ruin a decades-old organization in only a couple of years. I have seen several examples personally. Harvard University is one example in the recent news. Leadership is difficult. It seems wise to limit the power of any one group of leaders. One group of leaders can do […]

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by Dwayne Phillips A recent discussion with Johanna Rothman reminded me of terrible discussions I had with government project managers about project lifecycles. The shame is that most government managers don’t know one project lifecycle from another. Hence, when talking to them, ask enough questions to understand what they think they really mean. In general […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Being a grandfather has taught me a few things about managing work. How can a baby teach an adult so much in so little time? I am a grandfather; I have been one for 6 1/2 wonderful months. I see my grandson on average every three to seven days (funny how I […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Government exists to spend money. The more money spent, the better it is for those inside government and also for their partners in industry. This is a disappointing system. There are solutions, but don’t look for them to be implemented anytime soon. I worked over 25 years in government and a few […]

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by Dwayne Phillips There are many methods to use to reach a conclusion. Since they all involve fallible people like me, most of the methods are fallible. Expect requests for further study. Anticipate them and ask others to study alongside you from the beginning. Arriving at a conclusion is a primary task of an engineer, […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Managers are everywhere. The vast majority of them perform their jobs poorly. Still, we work for these bad managers. Why? I am reading a manuscript written by Johanna Rothman on managing project portfolios. I expect this to be a fine book when published. It is for people who have more work than […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Most meetings are a waste of time and most meetings are conducted by educated, intelligent, and accomplished people. These contradictions fit when I realized that the people conducting the worthless meetings simply didn’t have the energy to make them worthwhile. I needed another tact besides sighing and suffering. I have sat in […]

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